Across the tracks

I spent an hour and a half or so this morning on a reconnoiter of an area just west of Mbale town, not far past where the railway crosses the Kampala-bound road. It's mixed grassland, swamp, scrub and thornbush (several Acacia tree species, with some Euphorbia, Ficus and many others I don't recognize). The variety of habitats in a fairly small area makes for a pleasantly diverse birding experience too. My brief walk-around there this morning made it clear that it's a place that needs a lot more visits. Some birds of interest from today's excursion:

Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) -- I didn't get a long enough look at it to be 100% certain of this ID, but the combination of brief observation and extended listening to its unusual call makes me think this is correct. Nightingales migrate through most of East Africa Oct-Dec on southward passage and back northward again in Mar-Apr.

Marsh tchagra (Tchagra minuta) -- also heard brown-crowned tchagra (Tchagra australis) and black-crowned tchagra (Tchagra senegala); my first experience of seeing/hearing all three species in one setting; also in the shrike department, the common but always stunning black-headed gonolek (Laniarius erythrogaster)

Green sandpiper (Tringa ochropus) -- a group of about eight of these in a man-made pool near the swamp; another migrant

Helmeted guineafowl (Numida meleagris) -- came across 10 or 15 of these; they allowed me to approach to within 20 meters or so before they flushed and relocated just beyond the next "scrub island"

African mourning dove (Streptopelia decipiens) -- never see these inside town, but the mixed habitat near the wetlands outside suits them well; also saw laughing dove (Streptopelia senegalensis), red-eyed dove (Streptopelia semitorquata), blue-spotted wood dove (Turtur afer); and heard tambourine dove (Turtur tympanistria)

Yellow-breasted apalis (Apalis flavida)

A large coucal (very wet and back-lit, so difficult to ascertain plumage details, but by habitat and size probably blue-headed [Centropus monachus])

Several raptors, none unusual but always interesting: black-shouldered kite (Elanus caeruleus); black kite (Milvus migrans); harrier hawk (Polyboroides typus), African goshawk (Accipiter tachiro); lizard buzzard (Kaupifalco monogrammicus); hooded vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus)

A kettle of at least 300 Abdim's storks (Ciconia abdimii)

Yellow-throated longclaw (Macronyx croceus)

White-headed saw-wing (Psalidoprocne albiceps)

Brimstone serin (Serinus sulphuratus)